GAZA CITY - Gripping a food aid card, Nasser stands in line outside a UN centre in the Hamas-run Gaza, an overcrowded Palestinian enclave where a growing number of people survive on foreign assistance.
"If the UN weren't here, I would be begging in the street," says the 46-year-old unemployed father of five.
One of the most crowded places on Earth, the Gaza Strip is struggling with a crippling embargo imposed by Israel, which has sealed its 1.5 million people off from all but vital aid.
Humanitarian agencies say the blockade amounts to "collective punishment" -- banned by international law -- and has aggravated poverty, with 80 percent of people now dependent on food aid.
The small, embattled territory, wedged between Israel and Egypt, was further weakened by a deadly blitz the Jewish state conducted earlier this month in a bid to weaken Hamas and stop rocket attacks on nearby Israeli communities.
The assault killed more than 130 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and ramped up pressure on already weakened emergency medical services.
"We have never seen so much distress," says Mohammed, one of the numerous Palestinians employed by the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to some 4.5 million refugees scattered across the Middle East region.
"People have nothing, there are even civil servants who don't receive their salary and come here to get their bag of food," he said as crowds thronged the courtyard of the UNRWA aid distribution centre in Gaza City.
After an hour-long wait, Nasser finally reaches a counter where he is handed a voucher. "Now you can go get your food," an employee tells him.
"I have no work and five children at home. I have no choice," Nasser says.
As he slowly makes his way through the crowd of women, children and elderly people awaiting their turn, a man calls out to him. "You want to sell your voucher? That way you'll have some money."
Nasser hesitates, but eventually puts the voucher back in his pocket and walks off.
A veiled woman with a child heads out of the compound a few minutes later.
"Seven years ago my husband lost his job in Israel and I have nine children. Prices have soared since the border was closed. We are more than 4,000 dollars in debt. There is no hope," she says.
Outside another UN centre about one kilometer (0.6 mile) away, trucks line up waiting for crews to offload their precious shipment of flour into large hangars packed with bags of sugar, milk, rice and other essentials.
"We provide food to 859,000 Palestinian refugees," says Adnan Abou Hasna, an UNRWA spokesman, adding that the sheer need for aid is overwhelming as the Gaza economy drifts towards total collapse.
"There is a serious deterioration in all the life aspects in Gaza," he said. "Everything is affected by this unprecedented closure."
The unemployment rate in Gaza tops 70 percent, private businesses across the Gaza Strip have collapsed, and water and power shortages have undermined the local health sector.
Daily life in Gaza has become increasingly harsh since Israel declared the territory run by the Islamist Hamas group a "hostile entity" last year.
The situation worsened after Israel tightened sanctions in mid-January in response to near-daily rocket attacks launched from Gaza.
Calling the the situation in the Gaza Strip the worst in 40 years, several British humanitarian agencies last week urged Israel to end the punishing blockade which they said did nothing to improve security.
"Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes of peace in the region will be dashed," said Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of CARE International UK.
Israel says it is meeting the basic humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip and blames Hamas for the hardships suffered by residents.
The Islamist movement has ruled Gaza since June when it ousted the rival forces of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose authority is now limited to the occupied West Bank.
mf/pfm/jk/db

03/12/2008 13:22 GMT